


Connect-the-Dot Pictures

by parchmints



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Baby Lance (Voltron), Canon Compliant, Flashback fic, Gen, Lance's Insecurities, Life Lessons, Pre-Canon, back in cuba, just some sweet father son bonding honestly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 07:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15925724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parchmints/pseuds/parchmints
Summary: When Lance is six-years-old, his father takes him stargazing...





	Connect-the-Dot Pictures

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! This is a little fic I wrote for [Lancito Zine](http://lancitozine.tumblr.com/) and we're now finally able to share our work. I got the section assignment "Cuba/Pre-Garrison" so I made a little fic with Lance and his dad. Hope it fills your Lance stan needs :) 
> 
> Thanks to the Lancito crew and [Emma](http://riptidelance.tumblr.com/) for betaing!

**Connect-the-Dot Pictures**

 

Lance pressed his nose against the cold window of his family’s well-loved Buick. Outside, the tall grasses and worn fences of rural Cárdenas blurred into a hazy ocean lit only by the ebbing headlights of the car.

The night was so steeped in inky blackness that Lance felt like he was in a rocketship floating through space, instead of riding in the backseat of a classic, cobalt-colored car. The idea made the six-year-old boy’s lips tug into the bright, gap-toothed smile that his mother would regularly coo over.

“Sit back, mijo! And put your seatbelt on. That’s not safe,” Lance’s father said, flicking his eyes to the rear-view mirror. Lance, unable to ever defy the strong, stern voice of his father, did what he was told.

“Yes, Papá,” Lance said, clicking the tongue of his seatbelt into the buckle, then looking back out the window.

“ _Thank you_ ,” his father called.

Lance watched the stars blur past in wonder and decided he liked the sky. He liked looking at it, and he liked drawing the sun and the moon when his big sister let him borrow her crayons. Remembering the moon, he wanted to get a glimpse but he couldn’t see it out of any of the windows.

“Papá, where’s the moon?”

“The moon is in the sky. You know that.”

“But I can’t _see_ it. Is the moon hiding?” Lance asked seriously, looking out the windows on either side of him to try and find a sliver of glowing white.

His father let out a rumbling chuckle and looked back into the rear-view mirror with crinkled eyes.

“Yes. Every month, the moon likes to hide behind a shadow, but she’s still there.”

“Oh.”

Lance looked up through the window again and lost himself in the whooshing of the sky overhead, wanting to swim in it. He wondered if he could play a game of hide-and-seek with the moon and maybe, if he found her, she would come back out.

“Where are we going?” Lance asked, his voice soft and muddy.  

“Actually, I have a question for _you_ first.”

“You do?”

“Yes. Lance, can you tell me why you’ve been interrupting Profesora Diaz in class? She told your mamá that you’re distracting the other students.”

For several moments, the car was silent except for the soft rumbling of the car driving over asphalt.

“Am I in trouble?” Lance asked in a small voice.

“No, not if you tell me the truth. Why are you interrupting class?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Well, think. Why do you want to do it if your profe says she doesn’t like it and asks you to stop?” Lance’s father asked and Lance squirmed in his seat. His father said he wasn’t in trouble, but it _felt_ like he was in trouble.

“Um, it’s fun.”

“It’s fun disobeying your profesora, mijo? Is it fun making her day harder?”

Lance winced and suddenly felt very guilty. He liked his profe a lot and he didn’t want to cause her trouble.

“No.”

“Then, why is it fun?”

Soft silence again.

“The other kids laugh when I make jokes and fart noises, papá. They all look at me.”

“Ah, I see,” his father said, taking a hard right onto a dirt road.

“Papá, where are we going?” Lance asked again. His father had only announced that they were going to spend some one-on-one time together an hour ago, and Lance so rarely got time alone with his father that he didn’t bother to ask questions. Instead, he leaped at the chance to go on a night drive with him and relished the confused looks of his older siblings as he was ushered out the door after dinner.  

“You’ll see. We’re almost there.”

Within a few minutes’ drive of bumpy terrain, Lance’s father parked the car. Excited to see their destination, Lance unbuckled his seat belt and groped for the door handle.

“Do you need help?” his father asked, already halfway out of the car.

“Nuh uh. I can do it!” Lance said, his small hands already finding the door handle. With his brow furrowed and cheeks puffed, he shoved against the heavy door until it opened enough for him to drop out.

Lance trotted over to his father, who was rummaging in the trunk of the car, and grabbed his pant leg to let him know he was there.

“Mijo, are you cold?” Lance’s father asked, looking down at him. The humid, Cuban night air was never very cold, but now that his father brought it to his attention, his blue rocket t-shirt wasn’t going to cut it. He nodded his head and his father threw a piece of olive green fabric at him.

“Here, Luís left his jacket in the car. Put it on and make sure you shut your door.”

Lance’s father went back to the trunk and pulled out a sleeping bag as Lance inspected the article thrown to him. He grinned as he realized it was his eldest brother’s super cool, super grown-up green hoodie. He put it on, but it completely engulfed him as the hem reached his knees and the sleeves flopped uselessly over his hands. He _loved_ it.

He ran back to the car door to shut it and once he did, his father was right behind him holding a rolled up sleeping bag, a thermos, and a lit flashlight.

“This way,” his father said, gesturing ahead. Lance followed him and saw that they were walking towards a grassy hill that stood out among the mostly flat land.

Together they trekked up the hill until they reached the top and Lance’s father put down the supplies he’d been carrying. He unrolled and unzipped the sleeping bag to lay it on the ground and then sat cross-legged on it, the thermos and flashlight next to him.

“Sit next to me, Lance,” his father said, patting the spot by his side and Lance quickly obliged. His father grabbed the thermos, opened it, and poured a hot, dark liquid into the cap-cup. The liquid had a thick, sweet smell and Lance’s face lit up once he realized what his father had brought.

“Is that hot chocolate?!”

Lance’s father chuckled and nodded.

“Yeah!!” Lance shouted as his father handed him the cup.

“Blow on it, it’s hot.”

“Okay,” Lance mumbled before blowing into the cup, then taking a sip. His chest warmed as the drink slid down his throat and he couldn’t help but smile up at his father.

“Is it good?” his father asked, returning the smile.

“Mm-hm!”

“What do you say?”

“Thank you, Papá!”

“That’s right. You have to thank your mamá when we get back too. She made it for us.”

“I will.”

They sat quietly for a couple of moments, enjoying the cool night air and the rare treat of hot chocolate before Lance’s father broke the silence.

“Lance, did you know your papá was just like you?”

Lance looked up at him and tilted his head in confusion.

“Like me?”

“Yep, I was the youngest of six, so I had lots of big brothers and sisters—just like you, mijo.”

“But Papá, you’re so old!” Lance said with wide eyes and his father let out a bark of laughter.

“That’s true, but my siblings are even older.”

“They must be like a bajillion years old!”

“Not quite, but almost,” Lance’s father said with another laugh, “but, y’know, sometimes being the baby of the family was hard. Sometimes I felt like my mamá and papá didn’t have time for me. Sometimes I felt like I was invisible. Sometimes I would act out in class because of it.”

“ _Really?_ ” Lance asked, flabbergasted.

“Mm-hm. Do you feel that way, mijo?” his father asked, looking down at him. Lance stared at him for several seconds with wide eyes and then looked down at his hot chocolate.

“Sometimes.”

Lance’s father nodded, “My papá brought me here when I was little and you know what he told me?”

“What?”

Lance’s father turned off the flashlight and brought a hand to rest on Lance’s shoulder.

“He told me to look up at the stars,” he said and Lance gasped as he did. Never in his life had he seen so many stars in the sky before. He had no idea so many stars _existed_.

“Whoa!”

“Beautiful, huh? Look, the Big Dipper is there! Can you see it?” Lance’s father asked and he spent a couple of minutes showing Lance the outline of the constellation.

“There’s pictures in the stars?” Lance asked.

“Yes, they’re like connect-the-dot pictures and just like with connect-the-dot-pictures, if you take away even _one_ dot, you ruin the picture, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, people are a lot like constellations or connect-the-dot pictures. See, it might _seem_ that because there are so many stars, if you take away just one, it wouldn’t matter, but that’s not true. If you take away one star, you ruin the picture. Every star is important, and Lance, every _person_ is important.

“Each star has a role to play and so does everyone in the world. Nobody can be you but you, Lance. Remember that. You’re never invisible. You’re part of something _big_ and _beautiful_ , mijo. Does that make sense?”

Lance looked from his father to the stars above and then back to his father. He was a little confused, but he at least understood that his father was telling him he was important and that was enough.

“Yeah, Papá.”

“Now, will you be a good boy in class for me? You can make jokes on breaks but you’ve gotta listen to your profe when she’s teaching you. She’s helping you learn. That’s why _she’s_ important.”

“I’ll be good, Papá. I promise.”

Lance’s father smiled and ruffled his son’s hair.

“Do you want more hot chocolate?”

“Yeah!”

Once again, they fell into a comfortable silence, sipping on hot chocolate and looking up at the stars. Lance went over what his father said in his head again, about how each star was important even though there were a bajillion-million. He looked at the stars and tried to pay attention to each one on their own but there were too many. Then, an idea struck him.

“Papá!”

“Yes?”

“Papá, I wanna see the stars when I grow up!” Lance said, pointing up at the stars and tugging on his father’s sleeve.

“Oh? And how will you do that, mijo?”

“I’ll-I’ll-!” Lance looked around for the answer until it struck him, “I’ll show you!”

He shimmied out of his brother’s jacket and brought the sleeves up around his neck. He stood and held out the sleeves to his father.

“Can you tie them?” Lance asked and his father let out a soft chuckle but obliged. With the sleeves tied around his neck, the torso of the jacket flapped behind him like a cape, and he looked for the right place to stage his announcement.  

He found it in a nearby rock that was perfect to perch on and ran to it. He hoisted himself onto the rock then stood to his full height and placed his fists on his hips.

With a big, dashing smile he called to his father, “Papá! One day, I’ll visit every star in the universe and tell them they’re important—just like you said! I’ll be a super space hero!”

Lance’s father, full of laughter and pride, gave his son an amused grin and a round of applause.

“I’m sure you will, Lance. I’m sure you will.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and Kudos are always thoroughly appreciated <3 
> 
> Links: [Tumblr](http://parchmints.tumblr.com/) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/parchmints) | [caard](https://parchmints.carrd.co/) | [my klance fics](https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&include_work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=276512&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&user_id=parchmints)


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